Introduction
Having your own website equates to having a superb web hosting service, for very obvious reasons. A web hosting provider that could assure you of continuous services, without downtime could very well spell great success to your website. A few minutes of downtime could mean lost sales. If you are concerned about business survival and online presence, you need to choose the best host provider that could answer to all your needs. What comes to mind is, how do you this?
Guidelines on Choosing a Web Hosting Service
- The Lure of the Free Domains
There are many hosts today that offer free hosting service. They look very enticing, since you can just plunge in and your site is ready in a flick of a finger. This can lure the most naïve among us, and it may take a while before you start asking questions –
“What if your site becomes successful? Will the free service still continue?” Always remember that even if the domain provided by them is free, the web host still retains ownership of the domain name.
What this means is that in a few months or years from now, though the present arrangement may sound appealing ---there may be may be need for you to ask some serious questions. For instance,
who owns the domain? Even if it is free now, the host still retains ownership of it. This means, that a few years down the line when your site may have become successful, there may be a need for you to buy the domain name. Either you buy it or you go both ways – you get stuck with it or it gets deleted from cyberspace.
Most newbies who are on the lookout for online presence often ignore disk space and bandwidth requirements when it comes to public domains. Just because it is free, this very critical feature is often disregarded when making decisions on what host to choose from. Problems may crop up later on or if in case your site becomes popular. At this juncture, you go running to your host to inquire if they may have an additional disk space that you can pay at an equitable price. Good if they do, and bad for you if they don’t!
- The Unlimited Storage Fallacy
We get to see many flyers and come-ons online that tend to get the attention of many
netizens. It is the concept of unlimited storage, that is dangled around us like some carrot on a stick. This is a fallacy, a creation of their mindless think-tanks --- since there is no such thing as unlimited storage. If you read the fine prints on their terms of service, exceeding their prescribe amount of storage will mean a violation of your agreement. Hence, your account can be terminated for cause.
- Required Back-Up of Files
To seduce consumers into their fold, many hosting companies give off guarantees to protect your data. These come-ons come with stipulations that they have a reliable backup plan to ensure that all your documents are protected. While this may be true for some companies, it is still prudent if you do your own backups, especially if you opt to use a public server. Doing your own backup of documents would mean having an off-site alternative, so that your files are safe even if the public server crashes, as they are wont to do. It is also advisable to only enter into a short-term contract with hosting companies, so you can get out right away in case problems arises in the future.
Conclusion
Finding a good host is often times hard to do. Even professional webmasters can still fall prey to a web host that suddenly goes under. Hosting is a complex business and can experience both ups and downs in the trade. If you get lucky in finding a good host, stick it out with them through good or bad times. But if they go down for more than 24 hours, you should research other hosts in preparation to moving out. There are pros and cons to using private and public servers. The choice would eventually depend on your specific needs and budget.
